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SIAM. 2C9
which it was necessary to pass, the French found the
gates shut and the country in arms. Pitrachas was
already in possession of the palace, and at the head of
an army; and the wretched adventurer fell, without
a struggle, into the hands of his enemy. After enduring
dreadful tortures, he was beheaded. The
adopted son and declared heir of Chaw Naraya was
the next victim: he was put into a scarlet sack, and
beaten to death with clubs of sandal wood.* The
brothers of the king shared the same fate; and on the
day following their execution, disease saved the usurper
the additional crime of removing by violent means the
unhappy monarch himself: he expired in the thirtysecond
year of his reign.
The Jesuits and the French troops, it may easily be
conceived, would not be very desirous to prolong their
residence in a country where they had now neither
allies nor protectors. They were glad to come to an
arrangement, which provided for their undisturbed
retreat and embarkation, but denounced, as the only
alternative, the penalty of death. Thus were the
crafty schemes of the French monarch rendered abortive,
and, as M. Malte Brun "
expresses it, the connexion
with France was broken off."f
This inhuman mode of execution was probably adopted to
ave the shedding of royal blood.
t There can be no doubt that the priests had a principal hand in
this rebellion. A report had been spread, that the king had shewn
a disposition to embrace the Christian religion. The Jesuits indeed
state, that they had no ground to entertain such an expectation,
and that Constantine had assured them, that such an idea was
wholly out of the question. A speech, however, is attributed to
him, in which he expressed his disbelief in the doctrine of metempsychosis,
and his belief in one Eternal God. It is difficult to
reconcile the representations made as to the enlightened and patriotic
character of this prince, with the cruelties of which, at the